When asked about the issue of adherence, particularly among young people, Carl Schmid, MBA, of the HIV + Hepatitis Policy Institute, said that patients are “lacking education, outreach, and ongoing support that they need to stay on PrEP” and recommended a program for PrEP similar to the Ryan White HIV/AIDS Program for antiretroviral therapy (ART), which negotiates cost of medications.
A copay accumulator works like this: To help needy consumers pay copays (including deductibles or co-insurance) for very expensive drugs, the manufacturers often provide financial aid. However, in recent years health insurers started stepping in and declaring that consumers cannot count that drug-maker aid toward their insurance policy’s maximum for copays/deductibles or out-of-pocket spending . . . . Carl E. Schmid II, executive director of the HIV+Hepatitis Policy Institute, told Ohio lawmakers last year: “The only players that this policy is good for are the insurers and the PBMs.”
Anthony Cantu, 31, counsels patients at a San Antonio health clinic about a daily pill shown to prevent HIV infection. Last summer, he started taking the medication himself, an approach called preexposure prophylaxis, better known as PrEP. The regimen requires laboratory tests every three months to ensure the powerful drug does not harm his kidneys and that he remains HIV-free.
Over 100 community-based organizations, advocacy groups and health centers sent a letter this month to President Joe Biden urging him “to support the creation of a national PrEP grant program to prevent HIV in the United States.” The program, they say, will also help address related health disparities among Black Americans and Latinos.
In a large clinical trial assessing Apretude, ViiV Healthcare’s recently approved injectable drug, as a form of HIV prevention, seven participants contracted the virus despite receiving their injections on schedule. The new findings indicate that, just as with those who take daily pills to prevent HIV, breakthrough infections are possible among people receiving Apretude.